The Golden Bough A study of magic and religion

Page: 147

When Crevaux was travelling in South America he entered a
village of the Apalai Indians. A few moments after his arrival some
of the Indians brought him a number of large black ants, of a
species whose bite is painful, fastened on palm leaves. Then all
the people of the village, without distinction of age or sex,
presented themselves to him, and he had to sting them all with the
ants on their faces, thighs, and other parts of their bodies.
Sometimes, when he applied the ants too tenderly, they called out
“More! more!” and were not satisfied till their skin
was thickly studded with tiny swellings like what might have been
produced by whipping them with nettles. The object of this ceremony
is made plain by the custom observed in Amboyna and Uliase of
sprinkling sick people with pungent spices, such as ginger and
cloves, chewed fine, in order by the prickling sensation to drive
away the demon of disease which may be clinging to their persons.
In Java a popular cure for gout or rheumatism is to rub Spanish
pepper into the nails of the fingers and toes of the sufferer; the
pungency of the pepper is supposed to be too much for the gout or
rheumatism, who accordingly departs in haste. So on the Slave Coast
the mother of a sick child sometimes believes that an evil spirit
has taken possession of the child’s body, and in order to
drive him out, she makes small cuts in the body of the little
sufferer and inserts green peppers or spices in the wounds,
believing that she will thereby hurt the evil spirit and force him
to be gone. The poor child naturally screams with pain, but the
mother hardens her heart in the belief that the demon is suffering
equally.

It is probable that the same dread of strangers, rather than any
desire to do them honour, is the motive of certain ceremonies which
are sometimes observed at their reception, but of which the
intention is not directly stated. In the Ongtong Java Islands,
which are inhabited by Polynesians, the priests or sorcerers seem
to wield great influence. Their main business is to summon or
exorcise spirits for the purpose of averting or dispelling
sickness, and of procuring favourable winds, a good catch of fish,
and so on. When strangers land on the islands, they are first of
all received by the sorcerers, sprinkled with water, anointed with
oil, and girt with dried pandanus leaves. At the same time sand and
water are freely thrown about in all directions, and the newcomer
and his boat are wiped with green leaves. After this ceremony the
strangers are introduced by the sorcerers to the chief. In
Afghanistan and in some parts of Persia the traveller, before he
enters a village, is frequently received with a sacrifice of animal
life or food, or of fire and incense. The Afghan Boundary Mission,
in passing by villages in Afghanistan, was often met with fire and
incense. Sometimes a tray of lighted embers is thrown under the
hoofs of the traveller’s horse, with the words, “You
are welcome.” On entering a village in Central Africa Emin
Pasha was received with the sacrifice of two goats; their blood was
sprinkled on the path and the chief stepped over the blood to greet
Emin. Sometimes the dread of strangers and their magic is too great
to allow of their reception on any terms. Thus when Speke arrived
at a certain village, the natives shut their doors against him,
“because they had never before seen a white man nor the tin
boxes that the men were carrying: ‘Who knows,’ they
said, ‘but that these very boxes are the plundering Watuta
transformed and come to kill us? You cannot be admitted.’ No
persuasion could avail with them, and the party had to proceed to
the next village.”